Flowering plants of the Western Ghats

Abstract

In Hindi the word ghat signifies a wide series of steps leading down to a river, especially one used for bathing. The ghats or steps most familiar to non-Indians are those on the Ganges that are used to descend to this sacred river for bathing, religious rituals, and cremations. The same word is used to describe a pass or steps through the mountains and by the early 16th century ghat had also come to signify the mountain ranges themselves, especially the two main ranges paralleling the eastern and western coasts of India. The western mountain ranges or Western Ghats are of special interest to botanists because they are very rich floristically.